PTS patch notes got posted in advance...

Bloom is radioactive light that messes up image quality by bleeding light everywhere but can make screenshots look more atmospheric by simulating movie camera effects. Turn it off to avoid eye cancer.

Magrider is the best performing AV tank on live I think.

And last time I tried to say that rival was a viable choice for magriders on these forum the magrider experts pretty much told me that I was an idiot and that rival is the only real choice.

Is it? There haven#t been any figures posted recently AFAIK, and there certainly hasn't been any complaints on these forums about AV Magriders. The only complaints have been about how good the PPA is compared to the other faction equivalents.

Plenty of players have been using Racer, coupled with Stealth for flanking, you haven't been looking at the forums very much if you have never heard of Racer being useful.

Oracle of death data that is a bit out of date is all I have to go on but that was before nerfs to the vanguard and prowler I think. People complain about PPA because it is cheese being pulled in mass by spawn campers that is a negative effect on infantry gamplay qol and is also one of the most boring activities in the game. Not nearly so many people regularly run AV tanks in 1v1 tank battles against other tanks to get a really good feeling of balance in that area.

I'm saying that people only use racer if they know what they are doing and that is mainly because of the high maximum turn speed you get with it when using key binds for turning.

AFAIK, the "oracle of death data was simply kills per user, and so since infantry kills were then the majority, was then useless for information about tank vs tank. So you based that on no actual data whatsoever? Or was there some other data from orracle of death I missed. SOE did give us MBT deaths statistics, which NC was leading on (though NC take more AV tanks), but again, that is flawed as a measure and is not up to date.

I wouldn't say I use it for the turn speed, but because it both lets you pursue someone better and run away better, since even with Magburner a rival magrider will get chased down by other vehicles.

• Magrider racer chassis now provides +10 kph instead of +15 kph. This brings it in line with the other MBT racer chassis.

Hate things like that. Factions are different for a reason, why make them the same?
In one more year changes there will be no differences left, only cosmetic.

I certainly hate fighting Magriders, but only because they're close range and unpredictable, especially with the Saron, which is my play style except they do it better. I wouldn't say they were overpowered because of it though. </reply>

It's not all Magrider nerfs though. The Magrider AP is being nerfed half as much as the Prowler AP, Magrider HEAT isn't being changed at all unlike HEAT for the other two, and the Saron is getting an indirect buff because both the Enforcer and the Halberd are being nerfed. That changes it from arguably the best secondary to highly likely being the best secondary.

You're also forgetting that this negatively impact the Prowler a lot. They said they want the tanks to be closer range and more mobile, except that lockdown completely ruins that. The main buff is turret stabilisation, not used for lockdown. Tanks are closer range? Bad news for lockdown due to deploy/undeploy times. The bonus on lockdown is less as well due to it working on percentages not a flat increase. The reason that lockdown wasn't crippling to the Prowler was due to it's range and high acceleration, but now the Vanguards acceleration has been increased, and the range reduced so that the Magrider can just turbo up to it.

The only tank which has come off well in this is the Vanguard, the already over popped faction. Good call there SOE.

ABOUT TIME.

am definitely gonna play loads when this patch hits live.

• Added an option to turn down bloom.

Good! Now I will be able to play on ultra in daytime.

• Sunderer owners now get 5xp per player who spawns on their deployed Sunderer. Increased from 2xp.

I am rich!!!!!!!!!! $$$$$$$$

• Flash kills are now worth 100xp, increased from 25xp.

there will be no flashes laying around

• Adjusted lag compensation to improve overall responsiveness.

No more deaths after 2 sec you got back into spawn room? Players with 400+ ping will be teleporting now i guess

Yes you apparently did miss the oracle of death data that gave information about vehicle death sources. Now you can apologise to me for being facetious.

Yes racer lets you go much faster and has superior turning speed. The bonus from rival is pretty negligible overall although it is seen almost as an essential upgrade for the other tanks.

All tank primaries are getting 25% more drop, including the Magrider, from the extra gravity. This affects the slower projectiles more than other projectiles, since they have longer travel time. AFAIK, the Magrider is not getting extra weapon elevation in this patch, so look forward to magrider issues while fighting while facing down a shallow slope. The Prowler will still have higher velocity than the Magrider, and the option of using anchor to increase the speed advantage. Sure, the Saron will be the best long range secondary, but the Magrider main gun will still be by far the worst, and the Magrider will have lost its unique advantages.

Negatively impact the Prowler? vertical stabilisation will probably benefit the Prowler the most, they are the ones that had the most trouble with the combination of vertical movement and recoil between shots. The Prowler main gun DPS is far higher than the other tanks even without anchor, and with anchor a 1/2 AP Prowler will beat a 2/2 Magrider that attempts to take it on front to front, why the hell would a Magrider rush you? A Magrider should to flank, then get the first shot, to win.

So..tanks now are going to have more difficulty fighting over longer ranges- Isn't this a sort of .....screwy design idea by vision- I mean, it seems to be a waste of the massive worlds available- yea, bases are too close, etc- but..this feels like steps backwards....inherently, that is /long term views and designs


Vanguard isn't the slowest tank-..? Magrider is(and the Magburner doesn't make that up due to not being able to be activated very often- but it's not supposed to-)

The magrider racer chassis Change- ....this will affect it trying to escape others...after it uses it's magburner to put some distance between it and enemy tanks/harassers.....

and the projectile changes -

My message to the devs would be- These changes might not affect the usability- except on a minor scale considered acceptable- but the fun factor may become at risk- causing Magriders to lose a little appeal , and the numbers they are pulled in, averaging over a long term- If that happens, hopefully the devs would see that, and actually either tweak the magrider, or buff it(not likely i know, due to rarity of buffs)

I was aware of the data, but hadn't seen it sourced in the oracle of death thread. The data itself was inconclusive in most respects, because we had no idea how many of the tanks were 1/2 or 2/2, the only thing you could clearly see with regards to the MBTs was that the Magrider main gun (both FPC and PC) were indeed the lowest of the three, and that the Saron got a lot of use.

Rival is seen as essential for the other tanks? I must have the worst luck in running into stealth + racer + AP/AV Vangaurds. Across all three factions I've generally seen rival being used for conservative play and racer used for aggressive.

I have enough of you SOE, especially you Higby. You should apologize all players and be fired immidietly from work.

First of all: NO MAGIES BUFFS?! Really? You are taking away from this tank everything it has good and compettive and giving it to other tanks without anything back??
Second: Magie speed nerf? You are serious? How about Higby you will drop on Miller and run Magie a little and see how "stronk" it is.
Third: Enforcer nerf? Didn't I tell you this few times? PS2 is ALL ABOUT RANGE. Welcome Vulcan-NC.
Fourth: Chasis useless- good work as always guys
Fifth: COMPLETLY IGNORE all tankers feedback in previous week! COMPLETLY!

You SOE are the worst balancing game company I have ever played, even though I play MMO for 13 years. You are the worst and you have no balance idea, you do not play the game aspects you want to "balance", you do not listen players feedback and you push updates "just beacause"

That's it- After my membership is down (month and half) I am leaving and I will discourage anyone I know from you game.

You are worst developers ever. You should fire yourself.

Just.....how many year you need to learn?

They are fixing some of the most annoying bugs!!!

FINALLY


Dont stop there SOE, make more patches like this. There are still many bugs left.

''Soldiers who place explosives will now get an assist xp award if they are detonated by someone else and the explosives kill an enemy.''

Higby, you deserve a hug for this. The amount of times people blew up my C4 and not gaining anything was sad

Soldiers who place explosives will now get an assist xp award if they are detonated by someone else and the explosives kill an enemy.

• Assist XP from explosive kills = exact same xp as a full kill

Praise Gork and Mork!

Sunderer owners now get 5xp per player who spawns on their deployed Sunderer. Increased from 2xp.

Nice.

Adjusted lag compensation to improve overall responsiveness.

Uh oh. If SOE says "improve", i read "**** up".

• Combat Chassis no longer improves reverse speed

Are we getting a cert refund for this change ?

Exactly. I cert Rival specifically to reverse faster. What,IF ANY, is it good for now?

Turning only.